The next day, Zero woke up early, made breakfast for Alice Digital, left a note, and then departed.
The assessment actually started at nine, Zero just wanted to go early and slack off there.
Upon arriving at the examination hall, she found that the invigilator was an acquaintance.
"Ah, Air Groove, are you invigilating again?"
"Yes… A-Hua was supposed to invigilate, but she has other official duties today, so I'm filling in." Air Groove also covered her face.
Basically, if she was busy and couldn't spare time, she was often asked to help, which led to frequent overtime for various reasons.
"Alright, by the way, you know my abilities, so why don't you just let me pass directly?"
"What do you think? = =" Are you that blatant? Air Groove stared at Zero with that look.
"I think it's possible."
"No = ="
"Oh~"
Zero looked at the seating chart and sat in her assigned seat.
"Huh? Where are the other candidates?"
"They're all taking the exam at the Trainer school; it wasn't practical for you to go there, so you're taking it here directly."
"Eh?"
"But don't think about taking shortcuts; specially adding an extra test paper for you and arranging a dedicated examination room and invigilator is already a great privilege."
That was indeed true; under normal circumstances, such late applications would require a year of training before assessment, but the association, understanding Zero's abilities, made an exception and allowed her to take the exam directly, which was a great help.
Then, after receiving the test paper, Zero was dumbfounded.
[Question 1: If you are locked in a basement by your Uma Musume, how do you save yourself?]
"??? Air Groove, are you sure this is an official question?"
"No problem; generally, human Trainers are very vulnerable compared to Uma Musume, so a Trainer's personal safety is also a very important matter."
It felt reasonable; Zero recalled the basement routines in the Trainer community.
Then… [Question 2: If the Uma Musume in your team start fighting over you, how should you, as the Trainer, make them get along peacefully?]
[Question 3: You fall in love with a human, but you know that all the Uma Musume in your team like you very much. How should you inform them of your relationship without upsetting them?]
[Question 4: You suddenly discover that an Uma Musume in your team is actually your long-lost older/younger sister, but you just confessed to her a while ago. How do you explain?]
It feels like whoever came up with these questions must have experienced them to some extent; how to put it, they're all a bit… especially what the hell is Question 4…
Most of the subsequent questions were also abnormal, feeling as if certain individuals were deliberately making things difficult for the examinees.
Air Groove also clearly felt that the exam questions were a bit off, but as an invigilator, she held back for now.
Soon after, Ling also finished the exam paper.
Good heavens, out of a hundred questions in total, sixty percent were outside the curriculum, all related to the human ethics between Trainers and Uma Musume. What had these examiners been through?
"Emmmm... Ling, the Association sent a notification. This test paper you took... it was written for fun by internal staff and accidentally got mixed up with the official test papers during packaging." Air Groove put down the phone with a complex expression.
"Huh!? Then what about mine!?" No, does an accident happen every time she tries something for the first time!?
First training, fractured on the spot; first time cooking, nearly blew up the pot; first debut, crashed into the starting gate... and now, her first Trainer exam, and this happens!?
"Well, the Association said those strange questions can be removed, and only the questions within the normal scope will be counted. However, if that's the case, each question will be worth a lot of points, and getting a few wrong might lead to failure. Of course, if you don't want this, a new test paper can be sent tomorrow for you to retake. What are your thoughts?"
"I'll go with the first option. I'm quite confident in my academic ability." After all, after Ling joined Tracen, she only took one exam and realized that the cultural classes here were no problem at all.
"Alright, then I'll take the test paper. You can go do what you want."
"Bye-bye~" Ling waved her hand, watching Air Groove leave.
That said, what should she do next?
She checked her phone. Alice Digital seemed to have already locked the door for her and gone to the monitoring room to write. She had also eaten breakfast, and the new key could be picked up at noon, so she didn't need to worry about it.
The school was on holiday now, but even so, there were still some Uma Musume who hadn't gone home... Perhaps she should go for a stroll?
The Association had guaranteed that if she passed, they would send the certification and approve the team application immediately. So, it was time for her to try and expand the team's size, as whether those two provisional members would join was still up in the air.
So, she started wandering aimlessly around the academy, but she didn't encounter a single Uma Musume.
Strange, even on holiday, they shouldn't be this lazy, right?
Then Ling saw a flyer on the ground.
[Fuji Kiseki, Opera O, Maruzensky, Smart Falcon performing an opera on the drama stage, starting at 1 PM!]
Alright, they were all popular Uma Musume. Opera O probably came up with some interesting script and called the other Uma Musume over, right?
The remaining Uma Musume in the academy were idle anyway, so most of them probably went to watch. Since she had time, Ling also planned to go.
Then, she saw a familiar face in the audience.
"Oh, Nato?"
"Ah... it's... it's Z-chan!"
Meisho Doto, an Uma Musume as well-endowed as Oguri Cap in a certain area, who, despite having sufficient strength, always lacked confidence and always encountered various misfortunes due to her clumsiness and strange luck.
Especially her clumsiness, Ling, after understanding her story, sighed, realizing she was born into a very good family.
There was no way around it. With her level of clumsiness, Ling suspected that if someone hadn't constantly watched over her, she might not have even survived to adulthood.
For example, one day, Opera O invited her to train together the next day at 1 PM. However, because she couldn't find her shoes, she ran out to buy some, but then she ran to a particularly distant place and finally got lost. Opera O waited from noon until evening, almost until the dormitory closed, before she finally arrived. After running a lap, when she rested, she wanted to apologize to Opera O, so she bought a cup of hot coffee. However... it was hot soy sauce.
According to Opera O, she heard no less than thirty "I'm sorry"s that day.
Actually, Ling was more curious as to why there would be hot soy sauce for sale.
Of course, although Meisho Doto was an Uma Musume who caused worry in various ways, her strength was still guaranteed.
Although she was runner-up many times in her career, her races from Satsuki Sho onwards only saw her lose to Opera O in the same year, which could be considered a fated rivalry.
The only time she beat Opera O was in the Takarazuka Kinen during her third year of classic races. After losing to Opera O five times, she finally won her first G1 victory in her life.
Then, in the autumn Tenno Sho, she was backstabbed by Alice Digital.
Afterward, she even lost to Manchester Cafe when she retired at Arima Kinen.
It was quite tragic.
However, seeing her here was quite normal, as her relationship with Opera O was still very good.
"But why did Z-chan come?"
"Nothing much, but seeing you, I thought of something, and it's all thanks to you."
"Eh? Although I don't know what happened, if I helped you, that's great!" She showed a silly smile.
After seeing Nato, Ling suddenly thought of the assistant Trainer position.
Although Tamamo Cross and others wouldn't mind coming to help, how could her second team be inferior to their first team's assistant Trainers?
"So you came to us?" Air Groove looked at Ling with an "interesting" expression.
If one were to talk about those who were idle, not part of any team, and had sufficient insight and strength, then it would naturally be Air Groove and Manchester Cafe.
"I don't mind, and it would be even better if there was coffee." Chaza didn't refuse either; after all, besides testing medicines for Air Groove, she was idle anyway.
"No problem then. So, Suko, what about you?"
"Hehehe, come, try this potion and I'll agree." Air Groove pulled out a test tube containing a purple potion from her sleeve.
"What is this?" Ling's gaze twitched slightly.
"Nothing, it's just a potion I made for good skin because I often stay up late. I'm mainly curious what kind of special reaction you'll have." Air Groove handed the potion to Ling and then took out her notebook.
Through many experiments, Air Groove had come to a conclusion: medicines that had normal effects on ordinary Uma Musume always produced some inexplicable side effects when Ling drank them.
Especially since those side effects were all so... just right?
"Can I not drink it...?" Ling knew very well that the unusual situations every time she drank medicine were caused by the Three Goddesses, so she was very reluctant to drink it.
"Then... try this?" Air Groove took out a flask with a durian pattern, inside which was fermenting durian pulp.
"..." After glancing at the flask, Ling decisively pulled out the stopper and drank the potion.
She would rather encounter some strange side effect.
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